For the past couple of weeks, I've been trying out a Samsung Galaxy Book. It's an interesting device—a 2-in-1 in the style of the Microsoft Surface Pro, but with a few distinctive features and its own set of pros and cons.

The basic unit measures 11.5 by 7.9 by 0.29 inches and weighs 1.6 pounds, making it about the same size but a hair thinner and lighter than the Surface Pro 4. (It weighs 2.6 pounds with the keyboard case, and travel weight is 2.8 pounds, including the keyboard, pen, and a rather light charger). You can use the Galaxy Book as a standalone tablet, but I suspect just about everyone will use it with the keyboard, which lets you use the device as a lightweight laptop. The tablet snaps into the keyboard, which then wraps around the back of the device, and functions as a stand. Given the shortage of Windows store apps that work well in tablet mode, I found myself using the Galaxy Book primarily as a laptop with the keyboard, though I appreciated the option to use it as a tablet with Samsung's S-pen. (Artists may well be happy to use Windows devices as a tablet with a pen; writers, not so much.)

One of the real defining aspects of the device is the gorgeous 12-inch screen. The Galaxy Book has a 2,160 by 1,440 resolution Super AMOLED display, with great color and very dark blacks. As a result, videos look great, and I was extremely pleased when running photo editing applications. Compared with the Surface's 2,736 by 1,824 LCD display, it has a little less resolution, but in a 12-inch screen, I didn't find that to be a problem. This may be the Galaxy Book's best feature.

The other big standout is the pen, which comes bundled with the device, and differs from Microsoft's in that it is a passive pen (without a battery or wireless connections). As a result, it does not require charging, but also doesn't have some of the features some of the active pens have. What it does, it does quite well. You can use the built-in Windows inking features to do things such as annotate a web page in the Edge browser. By clicking a button on the side of the pen, you can bring up some Samsung utilities, including a note-taking application, an option to capture part of a screen, or to ink on top of the screen. This seems quite similar to the pen features in Samsung's Galaxy Note line.

I tried inking in a number of applications, and thought the pen worked very well. I'm no artist, but it seemed precise, fast and responsive. The pen is light enough to hold comfortably.

Like the Surface, the pen doesn't fit into the Galaxy Book or its keyboard, though it does come with a sticky holder that you can attach to the keyboard (I'm not a fan, as these tend to snag in a laptop bag).

The basic hardware is quite good. The unit I tried was based on the Intel Core i5-7200 (Kaby Lake), and had a nominal speed of 2.5 GHz, with 8GB of RAM. This is slightly faster than the Surface Pro, which has the previous generation Core i5, but in practice, you would be hard pressed to notice the difference.

The Galaxy Book did significantly better than other machines in its class in battery rundown on PCMag's tests. I thought the battery was pretty good, given the weight; still, I did not make it through a full day with Wi-Fi on and the screen at an acceptable brightness.

As for the keyboard, it has its pros and cons. Like the Surface Pro keyboard, the Galaxy Book's keyboard is rather flat, without a lot of travel. I found it perfectly adequate, but it's not very comfortable if you are spending the whole day taking notes and writing. (I haven't seen a machine in this class that's particularly good for that purpose). It has a larger touchpad than the Surface, which is good, but because the Galaxy Book's touchpad is centered on the device rather than centered below the middle of the typing portion of the keyboard, it's a bit more awkward when you are using your left hand. The case design looks nicer than the Surface Pro's (because it covers the front and back), and works well on a flat surface, but offers a limited number of screen angles and isn't very comfortable when you are trying to type with the keyboard on your lap.

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The Galaxy Book has two USB-C ports. Two ports are certainly better than one, since you have a port free if you're using the other for charging, but I still wish it had a least one USB-A slot, as most of my devices still use USB-A. I also missed a direct video out (like an HDMI port, though you can typically find connectors between USB-C and most video standards). On the other hand, it does have a microSD slot (similar to a phone).

An LTE version of the Galaxy Book is available; as configured, the standard version has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FC. One other thing to note for business users: the Galaxy Book does not have Windows Hello or a fingerprint reader.

Overall, I found the Galaxy Book a fine machine to use, particularly if you need the pen, or just want a very lightweight, very slim machine to travel with. Its big strength is the display, which is one of the best I've seen, but you'll have to accept tradeoffs when it comes to the keyboard and ports.

About the Author

Michael J. Miller is Executive Vice President and Editorial Director of Ziff Davis Media Inc., where he takes an active role in corporate editorial issues, helps identify new editorial needs in the marketplace and shapes the editorial process of every Ziff Davis Media publication.
He joined the company in 1991 as Editor-in-Chief of PC Magazin... See Full Bio

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